On 22 February 2017, Oleg Melnikov, founder of the NGO ‘Against Slavery’, was detained in the town of Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on suspicion of organizing illegal immigration. As RFE/RL reported, Oleg Melnikov told the Mediazona news portal he was detained along with another activist and four migrant workers from the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan who were temporarily living in makeshift housing in Krasnogorsk organized by the activists. Melnikov told Mediazona that the four migrant workers were living at the facility 'while their papers were being taken care of by the activists.' As RFE/RL points out, the Russian Criminal Code provides for a punishment of up to five years in jail for assisting illegal immigration. Melnikov, the news outlet notes, 'formerly headed another antislavery group called Alernativa, which made headlines in 2012 when it helped release 11 people from de facto slavery.'